Tom Petty Dead at 66
Tom Petty has died at the age of 66 after being found in full cardiac arrest at his Malibu home Sunday night. The singer was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, but could not be revived.
His death was confirmed—after hours of conflicting reports regarding his passing—by Tony Dimitriades, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' longtime manager.
"He died peacefully at 8:40pm PT surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends," Dimitriades said in a statement, posted on the band's Facebook page.
Petty—the frontman of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and author of rock classics like "American Girl," "Breakdown" and "Free Fallin'," had been on a 40th anniversary tour with the Heartbreakers as recently as last week.
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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